Letter To Parents/Carers – 19th February 2021

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The First Minister has confirmed that the first stage of the phased return to schools can start from Monday 22nd. We are delighted to be welcoming our Nursery, P1-P3 and a small number of our Senior Phase pupils back into school this Monday.

I am very aware that the first phase of the return leaves many families with the challenge of continuing to support their child at home. I am expecting the next update from the First Minister around 2nd of March. In her briefing in parliament on Tuesday First Minister said that the next potential date for stage 2 of the return could be 15th March.

The Scottish Government will be publishing their framework for coming out of lockdown in the next 2 weeks. In this the main focus is the continued return of schools which is their main priority.

The next area they will be looking at is the potential increase in family contact. When it comes to the re-opening of the economy the first thing will be the re-opening of non-essential shops.

The infection rate in the Grampian area continues to come down which is positive news indeed. I have attached our updated Covid-19 Operational Risk Assessment. You will also find a copy of this on our website (Covid-19 – Orchard Brae School).

We had a very busy 2 days of inset with the staff engaging is a wide range of professional learning, all of which was done remotely with exception of the first aid training. Amy Dunnett the PT Primary has submitted our Eco Green Flag revalidation report. I will let you know the outcome as soon as I know. The poly tunnel for the outdoor learning class will be delivered in the next 2 weeks. A very big thank you to Friends of Orchard Brae for funding this. Looking forward to the spring,  we have a significant number of fruit tree saplings arriving which have been donated by the Woodland Trust.   

Take care and stay safe

Kind regards

Caroline

Home Economics Activities

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This week we have a variety of pancake recipes for you to try at home to help you celebrate Pancake Day.

NLC Symbol Supported Pancake Recipe

CBeebies Perfect Pancake Recipe

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/makes/pancake-recipe

CBBC Sweet Pancake Recipe

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/thingstodo/bp-sweet-pancake-make

You might also enjoy this pancake day song from CBeebies…

…or why not take part in the Blue Peter pancake flip challange!

We would love to see how you get on with you Home Economics activities so please feel free to share any photos or videos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. 

Hard at Work and Play in Secondary

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There’s been lots of work going on in Secondary over the last couple of weeks. It’s good to see pupils continuing to to work towards ASDAN awards and SQA qualifications while learning remotely. There have also been some very successful Google Meets and I know the staff involved in these have very much enjoyed seeing you all!

We have one young lady who working on SQA: Looking After Animals. She is taking good care of her new kitten.

We have pupils working on SQA Leisure Time Activities. This supports us in trying out new activities alongside engaging in things we already know and enjoy.

We’ve also been keeping fit, both indoors and out. There is a great range of activities in the PE Google Classroom. Please do pop in for a look if you’ve not already done so. Throwing and catching has been practised this week.

Life Skills and Independence

We continue to work on our life skills and independence. We’ve been baking: scones, a rainbow cake and savoury pancakes are a few of the recipes we’ve tried. Cooking and baking are great ways to practice our numeracy skills.

Assembly ‘Homework’

Our Secondary Assembly theme was ‘Love’ and we’ve now been tasked with showing love for someone over the next two weeks. This can take many forms: doing something to help someone else, being kind to someone, doing something that someone else enjoys, or for our staff and parents, showing yourself some kindness and taking a bit of time for you!

Following our previous Assembly where we had a theme of ‘Express Yourself’ in line with Children’s Mental Health Week, we enjoyed seeing photos of how others have done this.

Reading and Relaxing at Home

Being Creative through Art and Music

Enjoying Time Outdoors

Learning In Primary

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Well, we’ve finally reached the end of a very cold and very snowy week in the Primary Department and given the weather conditions lots of you have loved having the opportunity to take your learning outside.

You’ve shared lots of photos and videos and we are delighted to share some of the things you have been busy learning this week.

Snowman Challenge

It’s not often we have so much snow and you have all been extremely creative in building and decorating your own snowman. It’s also been a great way to get you hands moving as you squashed, squeezed and moulded the snow. Brrrr!

Colourful Creations

Some pupils also took part in some very cold and colourful outdoor art and science this week.

We were very impressed with how you made ice marbles using balloons filled with coloured water as well as using food colouring to create artwork in the snow.

You also been busy exploring art indoors too. It’s been a great opportunity for you to work on making choices, developing your motor skills and creativity and just possibly getting a wee bit messy too!

Learning Through Outdoor Play

The weather this week has provided lots of opportunities for you to play outside and even when you’ve been playing, you’ve still been learning!

You have been able to explore the snow using your senses, feeling how cold it is against your skin, how the air smells different, how it feels to walk through it and how wet it is when it melts, especially when you forget your wellies and waterproofs!

It’s been amazing to see all the sledging you have done throughout the week, both at home and at school. Some of you have been learning to use your core strength to sit on the sledge while you are being pulled along. Others have been working on their sharing, waiting and turn taking skills when there weren’t enough sledges for everyone to have a go. It’s been fantastic to see how some of you have become more confident as the week has gone on and are now able to try sledging down a hill all by yourself!!

Karen’s Creative Challenge

Karen has set a new challenge for you…pouring! Have a look at her video below and maybe you can have a go over the long weekend. We’d love to see how everyone gets on.

However, many of you are still enjoying practising the skills from the previous challenges, especially tower building.

Life Skills

The weather has been good for helping you to practice and develop your independence in dressing, especially putting on your boots, jackets and not forgetting your cosy hats, scarves and gloves!

You’ve also been busy working on other independent life skills such as setting the table, shopping and lots and lots of yummy baking!!!

We can’t wait to see what you get up to next week even though it is the long weekend so no school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re sure you’ll still be having fun and learning!

Letter to Parents/Carers – 12th February 2021

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We have had a very interesting week with the snow and cold temperatures. The delayed start time allowed the necessary snow clearing efforts to be completed. Many a snowman has been built this week.

There is an Online Safety talk happening live on Facebook on 24th February beginning at 7pm.

Here is the event page  – Online Safety Facebook Live | Facebook – it links through so that you can get it in your Facebook diary if you are interested and then join live from there.

Can I encourage you to send any questions you have about social media apps/ online safety to this email address so they can answer them on 24th Feb –  info@cybersafescotland.org

All staff working in school now have access to lateral flow testing. This will commence from Sunday 14th and will be carried out twice weekly. This is in line with all ACC schools.

We await confirmation from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tue 16th Feb that the phased return to schools will start from Mon 22nd Feb. We have our plans in place ready to implement when this is confirmed.

We have reached half term so next week we will have the Monday holiday and then the double inset days on Tue & Wed.

I see in the forecast that a thaw is on its way so the snow will soon be melting. Mixed feelings as I know it provides hours of fun form many members of our school community. 😊

I hope you all have a pleasant and safe half term break. I will share updates next week regarding phased return to schools as soon as they are available.

Take care.

Kind regards

Caroline

Outdoor Education Activities

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Given the current weather situation, here are a few snow and ice activities for you to try at home!

Ice Sun Catcher:

Snow Games:

This website has some great activities and games for you to enjoy playing in the snow

Active for Life – Games To Play In The Snow

Winter Scavenger Hunt:

Science Experiments:

CBeebies – Ice Cool Skates

BBC Bitesize – Ice Sculptures

BBC Bitesize – Snow, Ice and Water

Science Sparks – Ice Decorations

Snow Volcano Experiment

Ice Luminaries:

 

Mark Making:

Another great website which gives you different ideas on mark making activities in the snow.  

Mark Making

Storytime:

10 Sparkly Snowflakes written by Tiger Tales

Snow Penguin written by Tony Mitten

Snow Penguin written by Tony Mitten

Singing Hands: Winter Clothes

Art Activities

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What Happens When We Add Water To Flour?

This week we are continuing to use flour to create our artwork by exploring the different consistencies we get when we add water! Get ready for some messy fun and as always, the process is the main focus rather than the finished artwork.

Remember to warm up your hands and eyes beforehand using some of the exercises we’ve practised before! This activity has been split into three levels focusing of different skills and levels of ability. Choose the one that is right for your learner but feel free the experiment and explore!

Stage 1: At this stage we are looking for the pupils to show a simple response or reaction as the explore the different consistencies of this week’s flour art. With hand over hand support from an adult, mix flour and water together to make a thick paste. Try using your hands to manipulate the paste. Can you squash and pinch it? Can you roll it? Why don’t you try seeing if you can use different objects to roll your paste. Now add more water and turn your thick paste into a thin, runny paste. Explore the sensations of allowing the paste to dribble through your fingers. Does it feel hot, cold, sticky, slimy? What words can you find to describe how it feels? Using your hands to make some prints with the paste on paper. You could always add some food colouring to the paste to make some colourful prints!

Stage 2: With appropriate support, mix the flour and water to make a range of pastes with different consistencies. What happens when you add a little bit of water? What happens when you add lots? Which consistency do you like best? Use your hands to manipulate and move the paste around on your surface. Which consistencies can you pinch, squeeze and roll? Which consistencies are best to dribble and push? Use different objects to make marks and impressions in the pastes. Be as creative as you like but you could try forks, spoons, sticks or toys? Do they leave the same impressions in each paste or does the paste react in different ways? Try creating some artwork using the different pastes you have created. You can use your hands or objects to make marks and why don’t you add some food colouring to make your artwork really stand out!

Stage 3: For this stage you will need a clean surface, a mixing bowl, a piping bag or sandwich bag, paper and paint or food colouring. This activity will need to take place over two sessions to allow for drying time.

Mix your flour and water into a smooth paste with a similar consistency to icing. Carefully spoon the mixture into a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a sandwich bag and carefully snip off a little piece of the corner to create a nozzle. Squeeze the paste onto your paper to create a pattern and leave somewhere safe to dry. Once the paste is completely dry, use your paint or food colouring to colour in the spaces in your pattern. Make sure not to use to much paint or else your hardened flour paste will start to dissolve! Leave to dry and then gently rub off the flour paste to show your pattern. You could try creating your artwork on different backgrounds to investigate which works best. You could try cardboard, fabric or even a cardboard tube if you want to try making a 3 dimensional piece of art! You can also try adding glue to your flour paste if you want to make your pattern permanent.

If you can take some pictures of your floury explorations to share that would be wonderful so please feel free to share any photos or videos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary)  adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. 

Home Economics Activities

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This week we have a couple of different recipes for waffles for you to try making at home. What will you put on yours – bacon, maple syrup, jam or maybe something else? Have a go and why don’t you let us know what your favourite toppings are.

Belgian Waffles

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/belgian_waffles_34066

Cheat’s Waffle Recipe

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/griddle_pan_waffles_62298

We would love to see how you get on with you Home Economics activities so please feel free to share any photos or videos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. 

Autism Outreach Service – Workshops

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The Autism Outreach Service are going to be presenting two new workshops for staff that are now available to book on Eventbrite.

The workshops are twilight sessions presented online on Teams. The links for booking for each workshop is available below.

We hope you will be able to join us and we look forward to seeing you there.

Autism and Mindfulness

Presented by Karen Inglis, Laura May and Jan McKechnie.

Tuesday 20th April 2021 (16.00 – 18.00)

Attendees will understand the theories behind mindfulness and the overall benefits it can have for themselves as well as children with Autism. This course will explore a range of practical ways to implement mindfulness and the positive affect it can have on wellbeing, emotional regulation and self- belief.

For the Eventbrite booking link for Autism and Mindfulness please click here.

Autism – Using Visuals at Home

Presented by Hayley McFarlane and Tricia Bruce

Thursday 29th April 2021 (16.00 – 17.30)

We will be discussing and demonstrating how visuals can be used in the home to effectively support Autistic children and young people. We will go through a range of different visual structures, templates and resources. The focus on the workshop will be to support you in understanding what visuals may be helpful for you to provide to parents to support them at home.

For the Eventbrite booking link for Autism – Using Visuals at Home please click here.

Chinese New Year

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Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar new Year, is the Chinese festival which celebrates the New Year on the traditional Chinese calendar. This year it falls on Friday the 12th of February. Every year in the Chinese calendar is represented by an animal, 2021 is the year of the Ox.

Below are some activities to help you celebrate at home. Don’t worry if you do not have all the exact items you need, you can replace them with whatever bits and pieces you have at home.

Hope you have fun and Happy Chinese New Year!

This is a story from about how the twelve zodiac years were named by the Jade Emperor.

Cbeebies also have some fun things to make to help you celebrate.

This video shows you how to make a Chinese lantern that you can decorate and hang up.